Carte-de-visite full length double portrait of Archduke Franz Karl (1802-1878) and Archduchess Sophie of Austria (1805-1872). The studio setting is reminiscent of a bourgeois interior. On the right of the scene there is a draped curtain and a small marble statue. On the left is a bookcase containing books and framed photographs which supports a gilt candelabra. The subjects are seated on either side of a small marble-topped table on which is placed a bouquet of flowers in a crystal vase. Franz Karl is seated on the right of the scene, his right arm resting on the table. He has receding hair and a silver mutton chop beard. He is wearing a dark coloured, double-breasted frock coat with white trousers. His wife is seated on the left of the scene. She is wearing a white lace bonnet, a pale coloured dress trimmed with dark ribbon and a dark lace shawl. She rests her right hand on the edge of the table.

Franz Karl was father of two Emperors (Franz Joseph I of Austria and Maximilian I of Mexico) as well as the grandfather of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, whose assassination sparked the hostilities that led to the outbreak of World War I.